FAKEzero
by gentlemen genocide machine
Summary: the fourth grail war, a disastrous affair that ended with not but death and loss. now we look back to it, though with different servants and see where this shall lead
1. chapter 1

chapter one: king of nothing

the smoke started to dissipate.

the two standing there were...

surprised to say the least.

the man in black with a stern expression was kiristugu emiya, the famed magus killer.

the woman was the complete opposite wearing a gold trimmed white dress, this was irisviel von einzbern both his wife and homonculus.

standing before the two was the servant of the blade saber.

though rather than king Arthur, as expected from using avalon the scabbard of the famed Excalibur they instead got him.

a young man wearing modern clothing under dark green armour consisting of grieves, gauntlets a breastplate and a pauldron on his left shoulder while his right was home to a long shoulder cape.

blue eyes met the pair as he spoke the words.

"Sup, let's kill some people".

/1/

it was the morning after as irisviel sat at a nearby table drinking tea while saber looked out the window, lacking his armour.

outside kiritsugu was playing with a small girl who had a striking resemblance to irisviel.

this was the daughter of the homonculus and mercenary, illyasviel.

"at first glance, it's kinda hard to believe that he's got a family".

"maybe, but get to know him and you'll know he's a kind, caring person".

looking on, saber couldn't help but feel envious of the man.

/1/

the two began to depart the plane.

saber still in his casual clothing and irisviel in an all white outfit comprised of thigh high boots and a furred coat and hat.

"so saber, how was your first time on a plane?" she asked the servant, it was almost like being around a joyful child constantly.

not that he didn't like it of course, there was a sort of infectious joyfulness about her.

"well, it's certainly safer than what I'm used to"

the two continued on, followed by some homonculi, to act as both guards and maids.

with their passports sorted they borded a limousine waiting for them.

"your first time in Japan?".

"it's all so amazing!, I've never really had the chance to see the outside world. is this your first time too, saber?" it was like watching a wide eyes child brought somewhere new for the first time.

it was almost kinda cute in a way.

"sort of".

the limousine drove on, the two looking out at the passing buildings of fuyuki.

/1/

it was now night, the moon hung high and bright in the sky.

irisviel was laughing as she splashed about at the beaches edge, the waves flowed in and out.

"this is so much fun saber!, you should try this!" she giggled.

"maybe later".

then the nearby docks were shooting a large red light into the sky and...

was that DragonForce?...

"saber..."

"I MUST HAVE IT!!"

/1/

the two rushed to the docks looking for whatever made the light show.

saber was disappointed.

what they found was, strangely, a young man with black hair. wearing a fur collared jacket, silver grieves over his legs and silver gauntlets over his arms with a single pauldron over his right arm.

"so, you arrive" he said ominously.

saber's armour materialised over him, along with two long curved swords ending in flat tops instead of sharp tips.

"and you must be lancer".

" **HOW DID YOU KNOW!?** " he suddenly roared.

"...uh..." saber was left confused by the reaction while lancer brought out a red lance and with intense speeds began to spin it around himself with flare and finesse.

 **"WHO TOLD YOU!?"** he roared again continuing his high speed spins.

"screw it" fed up saber throws his swords at lancer, he deflects both and prepares to fight.

lancer charges, aiming to skewer the enemy servant on his spear.

however, saber produced another pair and locked them over lancers spear.

"making swords out of thin air, and with such distinct designs. your either a blacksmith or got something really stupid".

"hell i could be a caster or archer, maybe even rider" he retorted.

"nah, your definitely saber. who else would be summoned by the einzbern".

saber smirked "really, i thought we could keep this going until one of us started to use words that didn't make sense".

the two launched eachother back, skidding until they were back to where they started.

'be careful saber, that spear could be a noble phantasm' irisviel told him through the mental connection between master and servant.

'so any guesses?, a anti-magic spear?, a spear of instant death?, multiple spears of instant death? maybe a spear that's actually a dragon?'.

'not until he activates it, and a spear dragon?'.

'just a guess'

the two conversed as saber and lancer clashed.

"tell me, servant of the blade..." lancer started, around him crimson spears appeared and stabbed into the ground.

he grabbed three in each hand.

"do you have enough swords?"

the servant of the spear unleashed a crimson rain...

on both saber and irisviel.

"tch".

he jumped back.

he extended his arm upwards as archane letters spiralled into the air.

an outline of a star formed, a eye in the middle, surrounded by archane scripts all held within a shield outline.

a sign of protection.

a shield of rejection.

a barrier against the other.

the elder sign.

the rain of crimson spears struck, some left stuck against the shield, the rest falling around them.

lancer looked on as his attack failed, what saber deployed wasn't his noble phantasm that was obvious, but it wasn't magecraft nor magic.

normal magic anyway.

an attack that made defence null, forcing the target to move or die.

this.

this was the complete rejection of that.

not just that.

rejection of the laws of the world.

rejection of the world itself.

then warping it.

molding it into a new form.

a desired form where resides the desired outcome.

manipulation of the world at the conceptual level.

'sorcery?' lancer never truly encountered such a thing, not in person.

the rain of red stopped.

the barrier faded.

"you asked if i had enough swords, lancer..." information swirled around him.

changing into a three-dimensional form and actualising.

saber was surrounded by swords made of information.

small swords.

great swords.

bastard swords.

swords that weren't swords.

"do you have enough spears?"

they flew.

spears met swords.

blue met red.

'damn!, what the hell is this!?. his noble phantasm?, master!'.

indeed.

if this continues lancer will surly die.

the waves of swords and shapes that resembled swords would over come the crimson rain and hail.

then the hevens shook.

swords and spears stopped.

saber and lancer looked up.

giant space pirate ship.

"seriously?" saber said as a anchor landed on him crushing his skull.


	2. chapter 2

chapter two: swords and god's

the servant stood before the priest.

a man whose life was consumed by a need to understand himself.

the assassin that kirie kotomine summoned was not Hassan-i-sabbah.

a man in a business suit with red eyes and a high tech sheath stood before him.

the servant took a smoke from his sigarette " I'm assassin, so your the client?"

"yes".

/1/

he couldn't believe this.

the man in the red suit, tokiomi tohsaka.

head of the tohsaka mage family, one of the three families that invented the ritual that would be called the holy grail war.

as a magus it was only natural he would use it as a chance at the goal of all 'true' magi.

akasha, the root.

a source of both knowledge and endless mana said to be the 'root of the world'.

honestly, it was more like a magic recycling bin for souls.

the grail war was designed to reach the root and more importantly get around a problem that complicated this seemingly simple action.

it was impossible to reach akasha as a human.

thus, through the ritual devised by the tohsaka, einzbern and makiri(now matou) they could reach that place whilst maintaining their humanity.

however, through time and misinformation the original purpose of the grail war was lost on all but those with access to the true and rare information or with access to means so as to prolong their life unnaturally even by magus standards.

before him was not the kind of heroes, the prototype for the idea of 'hero', Gilgamesh.

rather there before him was a man that was wrong.

being near him was wrong.

looking at him was wrong.

his existence was wrong.

a appearance similar to a homonculus, red eyes, white hair and skin.

a black, leather biker jacket over a button up shirt, black jeans alongside black shoes.

this was archer.

and he was disappointed.

"well?" his words seeped with a natural superiority.

"you call for a audience with God and do not prepare offerings?.where is the food?, where is the drink?, the riches and women?, you would best have a good answer. _worm_ "

tokiomi pushed the feeling down, he neede to think fast.

"but i do, aid me archer and we can obtain the grail and have our greatest desire granted".

archer's brow raised slightly.

/1/ _some time ago /1/_

kirie walked down the staircase into the workshop.

a space devoted to the work of a mage, and can be altered as seen fit.

even for defence.

tokiomi was standing in front of what could be considered a magic fax machine.

taking out a large blade the tohsaka head separated the sheet from the rest of the parchment.

"ah kotomine, you've summoned assassin?" he asked his apprentice and now allie.

"yes, though there has been a complication to the plan"

the magus frowned. the plan originally was to summon the 'old man of the mountain' specifically the hundred faced hassan so as to act as a means of both gathering information on the other masters and assuring himself victory.

to answer this assassin materialised in the room.

alongside a second assassin.

"two assassin's?"

"no, rather this is one of assassin's skills. the creation of a temporary duplicate, though we lack the hassan's area of surveillance assassin's presence concealment should make scouting far easier" the second assassin absconded somewhere while the original took a long exhale from his cigarette.

"hmm, if this is assassin then perhaps we must rework our strategy. hopefully the catalyst we have for archer shall work as planned" tokiomi said, assassin looked about at the room.

and was reminded of how much of a pain in the ass magic was.

/1/ _currently_ /1/

kirie and assassin were standing in a road on a hill that overlooks the tohsaka estate.

the magus's wife and daughter were left to live with her relatives until the war was over.

"so, i heard something's about you boss"

the priest turned to his servant.

"they true?" the servant of Shadows inquired.

he grasped his wrist, remembering to the final moments of his wife, to leaving his daughter with others to be safe.

and being disgusted with the twisted sense of joy from looking back on their suffering.

"to some extent" he answered.

the servant simply threw his cigarette away and pocketed his glasses.

the manipulater that attached his sheath to his belt suddenly came to life.

swinging to his left side and extending towards his right.

he pulled out his sword.

high frequency blade in hand he stepped forward.

"then let's see where this nightmare takes us"

he runs.

his speed is something no human or natural being could achieve.

assassin jumped and free falled towards the mansion.

the mansion as expected of a magus was protected by a complex series of magecraft defences.

at the heart of this defence where five gems, the tohsaka magecraft centerd around the infusion and manipulation of gemstones.

gems acted as a medium for mana and depending on the amount that was infused could be used for multiple purposes.

assassin took out a hidden handgun and fired at the gems that were visible.

holstering his firearm, he walked to the center of the defence, a ornate pillar that ended in a multi-ringed pedistal where the gem resided.

"go ahead, see it as a reward for coming this far"

standing atop the manor's roof was archer, the air around him consumed by shimmering crimson.

an uncountable number of ornate silver and black halberds joined him.

comprised of a massive ornate axe head accompanied by a large onyx blade all atop a black staff ending in a silver pomel.

archer took one of these tools in his hand and smirked at the servant.

assassin stood, looking at him with disinterest.

"sorry, i don't really have the time to waste on you"

soon after, assassin was crushed by an endless hail of halberds.

archer stood over the still living servant, his body a twisted, raveged mess.

his expression was devoid of emotion, anything that came close would be a rage beyond words.

he brought down the weapon with speed that made assassin look slow.

with the servant of Shadows dead, archer dematerialised.

/1/

"I'm honestly disappointed"

within the study that overlooked the courtyard garden, archer leaned against a wall opposite tokiomi who stood looking out the window.

"it is a sound strategem archer, better than simply charging in knowing nothing about your foes" he replied as he drank from his glass of wine.

"to be called only to sit ideally by as a chance at finding entertainment slips by, you would do best to find a way to stay my wrath. worm".

with that archer dematerialised.

the tohsaka head indeed was trying to think of a way to placate the divine spirit, but he couldn't help but feel pride at being the first man in history to successfully summon a god.

but, said god was certainly not easy for him to deal with.

 _'it doesn't matter, the grail is as good as mine.'._


	3. chapter 3

chapter three: pirates and heroes

The massive ship hung over them.

lancer was still shocked at how such a thing could kill saber so easily.

a small boat flew down from it.

the gold and red vessel was manned by red haired woman who's 'clothes' could barely be called that.

she wore a black and red captins hat which had a golden skull as the centre piece.

wearing what could only be described as a scarlet collection of material that showed too much skin with a crimson coat billowing on her shoulders which had gold cuffs and circular pieces of gold on it's shoulders.

leather braces covered her forearms with the parts closes to her biceps starting with white fur.

it was a similar case to the knee high boots she wore which ended in flat heels and had a gold symbol on the shins.

She jumped off the boat and looked down at what was oncr saber.

"hey boy, does he look dead enough to you?" she asked seemingly to no one.

suddenly, a youth leaned over.

he wasn't really that memorable.

"Rider!?, why would you even ask that!?" he shouted at the seeming ridiculousness of her question.

Rider turned to the now dumbstruck lancer.

"i...wasn't interrupring anything. right?".

"...n-no.." he was glad to still be living, even if his rescuer was a pirate with almost no clothes on.

" _Of course, out of all the people who could have stolen rider from right under me. it had to be you, Waver velvet"_ the voice of lancer's master boomed.

the aforementioned master of rider was cowering behind the boats balcony and trying to hide as much as possible.

rider however, jumped back on the boat and pulled him up.

"who's that chump?".

"K-kayneth El Meloi Archibald, we're doomed" waver informed his servant. who looked more than a little excited.

stepping out of the shadows atop a shipping container stood the magus himself.

wearing a blue coat with black trim, he had a blonde receding hairline.

he smirked as he looked down at waver and rider like someone who was better than them and knew it.

 _"If you are so brash and foolish as to join the holy grail war"_ his voice boomed again as he addressed them.

 _"then allow me to give you a private lesson on how magi battle with servants"_ his smirk grew as he dramatically threw his arm aside.

 _"Lancer!, show this fool hi-"_

"Oh my god his face is literally just a forehead" rider interrupted.

" _what!?, you dare!?"._

"i mean it's like someone made a face that's ten percent face and ninety percent forehead" rider said on the verge of laughing.

"i must admit girl. you do have a point".

suddenly.

everything seemed to get colder.

standing atop a lamppost.

was archer.

he grinned as he looked at them, no it wasn't even close to 'looking'.

it was like a god was looking down at the insects of the world that called themselves people and was deciding who would die.

Lancer jumped to his master and took a defensive posture.

"master, we _HAVE_ to go _NOW"_.

at a glance, archer wasn't much to kayneth.

but.

the longer he looked, the more unnatural archer became.

this situation was nonviable.

"fine then, _waver!. know that when we meet again there won't be servants jumping out to interrupt"_ with that both servant and master fled.

"hmph, honestly".

"Rider.." there was no way that what stood before them was a servant.

servants where once human, and became heroic spirits through deeds or actions that left an impression on humanity collectively or where so remarkable that they couldn't be called anything but a hero.

archer.

was something that shouldn't be.

"Kid, i don't think i can take him".

waver couldn't believe that.

with her stats, skills and those two noble phantasms of hers, rider could win this grail war easily.

but.

if she couldn't take on archer and actually said it.

"but he could".

"huh?"

The anchor was launched in the air.

a black cloud rushed at archer.

it started to change.

a half formed sword, swung from a half formed arm leaped at him.

the servant of the bow blocked with, to wavers shock, a massive ornate axe.

the two weapons locked.

before archer was sabers still forming face.

"kept you waiting, huh?" he smirked.

"you have, boy".

/9/

 _some time ago_

The doors were thrown open.

"Kariya, this is certainly earlier than your usual visit's".

describing the man before him was as easy as calling him a corpse.

Zouken Matou.

a hunched, old man with eye's so sunken in that they were little more than white dots in an endless Abyss.

"zouken. let sakura go".

Kariya Matou.

he wore a blue hoodie and black cargo pants.

he had a unassuming, average appearance.

It had been ten years since he cut all ties he had with magi and magecraft.

"so that's why your here".

"i know what your doing to her, I'll get you the grail and you'll let her go" he demanded of the old vampire.

"are you sure of this?, your not necessarily ready for something like the grail war".

"your crest worms".

the matou head's eyes widened at that.

"Kariya. are you sure of this?, even the strongest of wills do not last long against such things".

his expression became stern "i am".

the worm scowled " are you?".

the old man gave a wistful sigh as he rose from his chair.

"considering how little time we have I'll have to do a quick job".

/7/

he could feel them.

the vile, retched things.

worming their way through his flesh, enhancing his magic circuits while feasting on him in return.

the pain was excruciating.

the pain.

the pain.

the pain.

was nothing.

"A week and your still sane, already making miracles are you?".

kariya turned to look up at his uncle.

his left eye had dulled and lost colour.

his hair had went from it's black colour to white.

the left half of his face was covered in protruding veins that pulsed thanks to the crest worms.

to the passing eye it seemed like he went through one hell of a stroke.

the slightest movement, even breathing riled up the worms.

with each brought another wave of pain.

but.

it was nothing.

/3/

The time was now.

months of agony lead to this moment.

the summoning of the servant that would win him the grail.

the catalyst that zouken provided would summon the greatest of the round table, Lancelot Du Lac.

what stood in the circle was not him.

He was surprisingly young, possibly in his early twenties if his face was anything to go by.

what caught kariya's eye was the inhuman growths that passed for his servants shoulders, covered in sweeping plate's of chitin that spiked off with what seemed like blue eyes randomly placed across the black flesh.

his limbs were similar, spiked masses that ended in a three fingered left hand and insect like feet.

his right forearm onward was instead a spiraled lance.

unlike his limbs, his torso wasn't covered by chitin but a black jacket over a white shirt. below was a pair of blue jeans held by a red belt, with the upper legs barely visible thanks to the chitin.

he had a surprisingly normal head compared to his body with the only exception being four chitinous plates on the sides of his face, topped with brown hair.

Blue, determined eyes met him.

"You, who have been unjustly punished by the world. i, of the Berserker class ask that you aid in destroying all that is 'Other".

"Are you to be my master?" berserker asked the ailing matou.

"Yes, he is. certainly impressive kariya, though he's not the servant wanted I'm sure you'll make do with him" the long lived worm that was the matou head said as he left.


End file.
